For Super Bowl, Giant TV Screens with Other Goodies Inside

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The biggest sports event of the year is always a handy excuse to
upgrade to a larger TV, and stores such as Best Buy and Target
are busting out the sale tags. “It’s probably second only to
Black Friday in terms of overall volume and the amount of deals
available,” said Kristy Welker, a Target spokeswoman. “For the
Super Bowl, big-screen TVs are the most popular.”

But this year the sizes are getting whacky.

How about a 92-inch screen? That’s more than seven a half feet
from corner to corner. Best Buy is selling a Mitsubishi
rear-projection version for $4,000. Bulky projection TVs are
going out of style, though. If you can settle for just under six
feet, try a 70-inch Sharp model selling for $2,000 at Best Buy.

That size isn’t so crazy anymore. “In LCD, it's not uncommon to
see 65-inch sets,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the
Consumer Electronics Association. And TV makers showed off
75-inch models at the Association’s annual show last month, so
DuBravac says to watch for models that size later this year.

At the massive Best Buy store on Union Square in Manhattan,
operations manager

Eddie Mora said that the 70-inch Sharp was in stock, along with
plenty in the 46-55-inch range, such as a 55-inch Samsung LED TV
for $1,200. That’s all hard to fathom in a city of such tiny
apartments. But with their home team in the game this year,
Giants fans may put emotion over logistics.

Don’t feel left out if your current TV is smaller, even a lot
smaller. DuBravac estimates that the average screen size people
buy is about 37 inches. Target, for example, has discounted a
basic 37-inch Westinghouse TV to $300.

Beyond Size

Many of the TVs on sale provide more than square footage,
however. Large models tend to have advanced features like
Internet connections and 3D capability, said Gary Merson, editor
of the site HD Guru. And those features will keep trickling down.
“Next year all the sets are going to have 3D, except the entry
models,” Merson said.

But don’t rush to get a new set just so you can watch the game in
3D. While many sporting events are broadcast in an extra
dimension, the Super Bowl is not yet one of them. However, some
Internet-connected TVs will run apps, such as ESPN ScoreCenter,
which can keep you up-to-date on other games.

Sony is offering a lot of deals this year, Merson explained,
because it’s thinning out its product lines. “They have orphan
models they need to get rid of,” he said.

But he feels that the best deals are from Panasonic and Samsung
(Target, for example, is selling for $1,099 a 46-inch connected
Samsung LCD packed with acronyms, including 1080p resolution and
LED backlighting.)

Merson recommends plasma TVs for sports, saying that they render
motion more sharply than LCD (and LED-LCD) TVs do. But as to
quality, he says it’s no longer an issue with any of the name
brands, such as LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.
“They don’t make bad sets. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

He left off the list other brands that may make good sets but
don’t have the best service terms, such as replacement policy.
“In many circumstances, under warranty, they’ll offer you a
refurbished TV,” he said. “And I don’t want someone else’s
headache.”

Both Amazon and Best Buy have generous 30-day, no-penalty-return
policies. Amazon pays return shipping. And if Best Buy delivers a
TV, it will also come to pick it up (for sets priced at $899 or
more).

With such enormous screens and liberal options policies, do
people ever buy monster TVs for their Super Bowl parties, then
send them back?